Nanotechnology history and Future

History of Nanotechnology

The history of nanotechnology, in some sense dates back to prehistoric times when early humans/hominoids made use of naturally-occurring, nanoscale elements. Depicted in the header above, nano-sized carbon molecules integrate nicely with the more porous rock surface of the cave walls to remain embedded for thousands of years.

The process and appreciation of miniaturization, the entire principle of nanotechnology, is also not new to the electronic or even the post-industrial eras. For thousands of years prior, the east has regarded small as superior and aesthetically pleasing.

In classic Japanese literature- The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, court lady to an Empress in the 10th Century, small things are to be regarded as beautiful.

Contemporary: Richard Feynman

In 1959, theoretical physicist Richard Feynman asked a couple of questions: “Why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin?” He also asked, “I put this out as a challenge: Is there no way to make the electron microscope more powerful?”

No doubt the folks of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) were not only puzzled but also intrigued. Actually, Feynman upped the ante on his on the head of pin question by asking why we simply couldn’t store every book ever written in the same amount of space.

The talk Feynman gave was later published in the February 1960 issue of Caltech’s Engineering and Science, which many say represents the first introduction to nanotechnology. Feynman never used the word nanotechnology.

Feynman further speculated that since we already knew cells were capable of manufacturing processes and doing other things, why then, couldn’t humans manufacture things at the same level? He took the question further and asked why we couldn’t manufacture not only at the cellular level, but better yet, at the atomic level.

Computers were so large they filled entire rooms. Was there a way to miniaturize them? Well, a few microchips and a few decades later, we did just that.

But it was in 1974 Tokyo Science University professor Norio Taniguchi coined the term nanotechnology. So nano was well on its way already in competing with micro.

Source: futurehumanevolution.com

The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless FutureBook (Princeton University Press)

The future is very bright and things

by formerspook

Are getting better. And, more things are now possible than at any other time in human history. Right now we have the knowledge that enables people in the USA to live long, healthy, active lives. Many of us, however, ignore what is already known.
Over the next 10 years, the biotechnology revolution will find cures for most of the diseases that have plagued mankind, followed by the nanotechnology revolution that will allow us to maintain excellent health and will lead to radical life extension.
We continue to educate ourselves in the old way. Application of technology to the field of education is overdue

I don't understand the Big Bang theory but I

by phylum

Don't have to accept it either. I stand on the sidelines watching what science has to offer for today. Either I will be interested in it or not.
My enjoyment of science is futurism and nanotechnology. Long after everyone in this forum is long dead, forward 500 years from now, computers will be seen only in history books like spinning wheels are in history books now.
In the future, our minds will be implanted with every need to have satisfied. I cannot back up what I say now as there are intermediate advancements in science by a thousand fold that I cannot predict so I have nothing to go on as an explanation.

Doode....

by lions_in-snow

At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and the most thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity.
For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he presented the daring argument that with the ever-accelerating rate of technological change, computers would rival the full range of human intelligence at its best

Nanotubes Increase Solar PV Conductivity 100 Million-Fold — SourceableCarbon-based nanostructures are already being used as materials in solar cells with increasing frequency, yet their ability to enhance electrical performance has thus far been hampered by limited ability to assemble orderly networks using the materials.

A Crisis of Faith: Atheism, Emerging Technologies and the Future of Humanity Book (Bookshaker)

Used Book in Good Condition

Future Trends in Microelectronics: Reflections on the Road to Nanotechnology (Nato Science Series E: (closed))Book (Springer)

Used Book in Good Condition

Whatever happened to cotton? Jim Thomas looks back from a brave new nanotech world at the fabric of history.(FUTURE FABRICS): An article from: New InternationalistBook (Thomson Gale)

The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human FutureeBooks (Wiley-Blackwell)